The Heart of the Cards
by D-D Dreamer
Summary: Atem has moved on to the afterlife, but he's left some unfinished business for someone to complete. The person who is chosen to finish complete his mission is Tea Gardner. In the process of dueling with monsters, finding help with unusual allies and discovering her connection with the pharaoh, she discovers she may be an important link to Atem's duels all along.
1. Prologue

**The Heart of the Cards**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Yugioh or the game: Yugioh! The Duelist of the Roses. This fanfiction is purposely written for the fun of it.

**Author's Notes**: This story is from the American dubbed version of Yugioh, not the Japanese version. I will also be combining one the Playstation 2 games, _Yugioh! The Duelist of the Roses,_ with this story line. Also, the characters will be out of character. Please read and leave a review.

**Prologue**

"Goodbye, Atem… and good luck," I whispered as I watched an old aged tablet filled with hieroglyphics and pictures of Egypt. A moment ago, the tablet was a grand doorway Atem, the Pharaoh of Egypt, walked through alone. No one would have ever believed it burst with life and opened to an unknown world only meant for him.

I raised my hand to touch the surface of the stone, to feel its coolness under my fingertips. Maybe if I touched the stone, the door would open for me so I could walk through it to join my fellow Pharaoh in his afterlife. But I stopped myself because he was gone forever. Nothing in the world could return him to Yugi Muto, the boy whom he shared a body with, or to Joey Wheeler, or to Tristan Taylor or to me. He belonged to a different world all together.

My chest hurt thinking about him. Slowly I let my hand fall to the side of my body as I heard footsteps walked away from the tablet. Yugi, Joey and the others were leaving. Their whispers echoed in the room, but their words didn't register in my mind. I felt very sad to lose a precious friend. No. I felt like something was ripped away from deep inside me as the Pharaoh left the world. I wanted to scream, to lash out at Joey for trying to prevent me from going after Atem, to collapse on the ground and weep in sadness.

Yet, I remained standing and staring at the lonely tablet. My friends were gone and for a moment a surge of hatred swelled in my chest. A friend left us and they acted as if his departure meant nothing to them.

But his existence meant the world to me. As small as the amount of times we shared with each other, I treasured it. Sometimes, I purposely got myself in trouble so Atem or Yami, as my friends and I called him, would appear instead of Yugi to save me.

Somewhere along the way of our adventure or troubles, I grew to love him. However, I could not express my love for him without hurting or involving Yugi so I contained my feelings as best as possible by acting as a friend. I used it as a disguise to get closer to him, to learn about him, to support him. Damn! All the friendship speeches I gave throughout his battles were a loud of crap! I was speaking of my feelings for him, but instead of saying "I," I was saying "we."

_How else could I act around him? Yugi was my best friend since childhood. Yami was a part of him. As much as I loved Yami, Yugi's friendship also meant the world to me,_ I mentally told myself.

"Does it?" said a feminine voice from behind me. Quickly, I turned around to see Ishizu Ishtar staring at me with grim expression on her face. She was dressed in white. Her long flowing dressed clung to her curvy form. She wore a scarf over her head to hide her dark hair. Her ears, neck and wrists were adorned in gold jewelry. Her lovely brown eyes were skeptically observing my reactions toward the tablet. I felt like belittling myself for being caught unaware of my surroundings. The one person who had a good sense to observe people was Ishizu. Her millennium puzzle piece allowed her to read people. She could see their past, present and the future. She was also one of the Pharaoh's tomb keepers.

"Does what?" I asked with puzzlement.

"Does Yugi's friendship mean as much as your feelings for Atem?" she questioned. She folded her hands over her stomach but her simple gesture caught me off guard.

_How did she know what I was thinking?_

"You make it obvious. You wear your heart on your sleeves," she answered with a small smile.

"But, it's still weird how you knew exactly what I was thinking without your millennium puzzle," I said as I stepped away from her. Ishizu always had a mysterious aura, which made her a bit creepy to my liking. However, she wasn't a bad person.

"I've had it with me for years. I have grown accustomed to the unusual powers it granted me. Before it disappeared, it allowed me to not only peer into your past and future, it showed me your aura and I must say yours is quite interesting."

I took another step back as her smile widened to a grin. Seeing a fully smiling Ishizu was freaking me out. Usually, it meant unfortunate news. "Uhh… umm… I really don't want to know anything about what you saw."

"Are you sure?" she asked. All of a sudden the smile was wiped off her face.

I nodded my head.

"Even if it has to do with the Pharaoh?"

I never saw it coming. It was too late for me to stop. As I was retreating from Ishizu, my back touched the cool surface of the tablet. I froze as I inhaled air into my body. Automatically, my body stiffened upon touching a sacred area Atem was recently occupying.

_This is not suppose to happen_, I mentally scolded myself. _Where are Yugi, Joey and Tristan when I need them?_

"They won't come. The sands of time will not allow them to interfere with this discussion," she yet again answered my thoughts.

"Stop doing that!" I yelled. I pushed myself away from the tablet to get away from both it and her. "Leave me alone!"

"I cannot do that," she simply said before unfolding her arms at her stomach. Her hands remained in fists as they moved to her sides. I didn't notice her hands before, but she seemed to be holding onto something in both of them. "The sands of time will not allow me to stop our discussion until I warn you what is to come in your future."

"What the heck are you talking about? What the heck is the sands of time?" I questioned as I surveyed the room. Something was different about the room. I didn't see an exit anywhere. Instead, stonewalls surrounded us on all sides.

"I will notify you if you stop moving around."

"How can I stop when we're trapped inside this room?" I panicked and began to madly dash around the room, going from left to right to find myself bumping into Ishizu.

"If you listen to me, all of this will end," she rationally said.

I stopped dead in my tracks and glanced at her. I puffed a few breaths, logically thinking about what she said. Nodding my head in agreement with her statement, I walked to her. However, instead of standing on my feet to have a conversation with her, I sat down cross-legged on the cold ground. I decided it was better to hear her story while sitting on the floor because it will brace me better for my reactions than standing on shaky legs.

She didn't take any offense to me sitting before her. Instead, she gracefully knelt down on her knees. Displaying both her closed hands in front of her, she opened them to reveal grains of sand. I stared at the sand and then looked at her in bafflement.

"In ancient Egypt, the Egyptians worshiped many gods and goddesses such as Ra, Horus, Isis, Anubis, Amun and many others. Nonetheless, they also believed objects had a life around them. Similarly to the Native American cultures in North and South America, the Egyptians believed everything had a life, especially the sand, which covered the most of their homeland."

"Okay," I responded. "How does this relate to the sands of time, or about my future?"

"I am getting there," Ishizu said with a small smile curving her rosy lips.

"Well, you're taking too much time," I retorted.

Her reaction shocked me. The smile never left her lips, which meant I wasn't annoying her at all. "The sand was of great importance to the people of Egypt. They believed the sand was alive and that it connected their world with other worlds -."

"Like the shadow realm?" I interrupted her as I recalled Yami dueling his opponents in the dark world with monsters.

"Yes," Ishizu approved. "The sand was believed to contain an entity to retain an essence of the person and bits of this sand was collected throughout a person's life. When the person died, the sand was encased in pottery and included with the body in his or her tomb."

"This is starting to sound bizarre," I said.

"To you, this will sound bizarre. To my people, it is a tradition. We greatly value the sand for its history and divinity."

"Which brings us back to the question of sands of time and me?"

Ishizu laughed and shook her head. "You really are something Tea."

"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult," I grumbled as I folded my arms over my chest.

"It's a compliment, Tea," she assured me. "This is the attitude I hope you will keep as everything is about to change."

She perked my interest with her words about change. "What type of change?"

"I can't say what type of change. All I can say is Atem's reappearance in the world disrupted the normal balance of life and with his departure; the things he affected with the balance will right itself. Unfortunately, this will include you because he has left some unfinished business."

"Me? But I don't see how it can affect me and not Yugi? Isn't Yugi the chosen one, his reincarnated self?" I questioned her. "Yugi and Yami endured many hardships together and they are very close to one another, so it is only fair for Yugi to be the one to complete Yami's unfinished business."

"True, the Pharaoh and Yugi are close, but Yugi's journey is over. And where one journey ends, a new one begins. This is about you now. Your journey is about to begin. It is up to you whether you want to walk the path to complete it."

I gulped as I realized the seriousness of Yami's situation. If he left unfinished business, then he shouldn't have gone to his afterlife. What if the world was in grave danger, I didn't have the power in me to stop it from consuming the world. Although Yugi may be small for his size, his courage, wit, determination and strength could withstand anything evil. He proved himself to be a formidable opponent against Yami.

"Do not underestimate yourself. Your courage, your belief in your friends, and your positive nature helped your friends get through perilous situations. Out of all the people you helped the Pharaoh the most."

"You're wrong," I said while I shook my head. My hair fell to the sides of my face while I bowed my head in shame. "I was being selfish. I wanted to be near Yami so I staged those friendship speeches. I constantly feared something terrible will happen to him so I followed him wherever he went and made Joey and Tristan come with me."

"Then, your selfishness is what he needed to help him conquer the darkness," Ishizu replied.

Her words made me looked up at her with astonishment. "What?"

"Your feelings helped him spiritually fight with darkness."

I inhaled a deep breath and exhaled it while I shook my head. "You give me too much credit."

"Actually, you don't get enough of it," she replied.

"Huh?" was all I could say to her.

She flipped over her hands until the sand fell onto the floor. "The sands of time say your journey will begin. Your deep feelings for the Pharaoh not only make a connection between you and him. Your link with him goes on a deeper level."

"How?" I questioned. My eyes gazed at the sand on the floor as if transfixed. For some strange reason I felt if I looked elsewhere in the room, something dreadful would happen to me or it.

"Walk your path, find the answers you seek but beware. This journey you begin will be a difficult one and unlike Yugi who had his friends, you will ally yourself with strange people."

I frowned; pondering which people would be my allies and then some questions popped into my mind. "Will walking this path really answer my questions like why I was chosen to finish Yami's business instead of Yugi?"

Forcing my attention to avert from the sand to Ishizu, I saw her gently nodded her head while her scarf bounced up and down on her head. "Just remember to believe in yourself."

"Okay," I answered her. I was ready to start my new journey, to answer my questions about my link to Yami or Atem and why the sands of time chose me to complete his journey.

She smiled so radiantly that her beauty seemed so ethereal. She stood up to her full height, forcing me to crane my neck to continue to stare at her. "I am glad to hear of it. I will now leave you alone."

She walked away from me, but my eyes returned to the sand on the floor. In order to inspect the sand, I carefully shifted my body weight to be supported on both my hands and knees and crawled to the sand. Poking my head closely at the fine grain, I took my pointer finger and touched some of the particles.

"Tea!" a familiar voice called to me. Automatically, I shifted my position so I was kneeling instead of being discovered in an awkward position in front of the intruder. "What are you doing?"

"I… uh… Was checking the floor for something." I answered truthfully and lamely at the same time while my hand awkwardly scratched the back of my head.

"We have to head back, Joey and Tristan are complaining they're hungry," Yugi said with a laugh. He also scratched the back of his head with his hand causing his already unruly blond mixed with black hair to be wilder at the sides of his boyish face. I nodded my head to comply with his wishes. Standing on my feet and dusting myself, I looked at the ground for the sand. It was still there, the small amount looked out of place in the room. I glanced around me to see if the room appeared the same way before Ishizu warped it to tell me something important. The room looked as if magic never tampered with it.

_Wait! How can Ishizu use magic if she no longer had possession of her millennium piece?_

"Tea!" Yugi called me, distracting me from my thoughts yet again.

"I'm coming!" I waved at him. Dismayed, I looked at the tablet one last time before walking over to Yugi. However, I noticed two things as I walked with Yugi to meet with our other friends. First, a slight draft of wind passed me to gently blow away the sand. And second, with every footstep I took away from the tablet, a heavy and appalling feeling overtook my heart.

Whatever path I decided to walk on, it was going to be a challenge.


	2. Chapter One

**AN**: I had to make some changes in Tea's family life to make this story work. The changes are to outline her life because I will be including the Playstation 2 game: _Yugioh! The Duelist of the Roses_. However, more information about this game will come into the next chapter. I will try my best to keep the storyline of the dubbed version of Yugioh, but I must warn, the characters are out of character. As for rating this story M, I rate it for the later chapters because there will be adult content and sexual situations. Please read and leave a review.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Yugioh or the game: _Yugioh! The Duelist of the Roses_. This fanfiction is purposely written for the fun of it.

**Chapter One**

I had a long red eye flight from Cairo, Egypt to Domino City. Throughout the whole flight I could not sleep, eat or drink anything. There was a point when Yugi, Joey and Tristan were asleep, I locked myself in the bathroom and wept over Atem's disappearance. I was unsure if Yugi and the others felt the way I did, but I felt like there was something missing inside me. I felt empty.

If it weren't for the persistent banging on the bathroom door, I would have stayed in it for the rest of the flight. I was not in the mood to face anyone or do anything. However, I had to open the door to let the person have his or her turn in the bathroom. I did not bother to wipe my face clean as I splashed cold water on it. The elderly woman seemed shocked at my dishevel appearance when I finally opened the door. However I looked to her, she made no note to lodge a complaint against me to the stewardess. Instead, I saw a remorseful and sympathetic look in her dark eyes. I was grateful for her expression because for once I could openly grieve without hiding it. Yet as I made my way back to my assigned seat, I had to build a placid façade. I had to remain strong for Yugi and the others. I noticed from their seated positions next to me or across from me, there were grim lines on their faces. Their cheerful natures dimmed because they were either tired from spending a long hot day in Egypt or they were beginning to miss Atem.

Either way, their feelings could not compare to my own. Which one of them could claim they were in love with a pharaoh, someone who lived five thousand years ago? He belonged in the past and I belonged in the present. My love for him was doomed from the moment I realized I viewed him differently from the other guys. His confidence, his good looks, his deep tone of voice, his way with words or the outfits he wore to show his muscular body did not lighten the effect he had on my heart. He took my breath away when I was in his company. Sometimes I felt myself fighting a blush or trying to find the right words to talk with him when we were together.

Then, he would revert to Yugi and I had to control my heart rate and try to prevent myself from getting into trouble for Yugi to summon Atem again.

And throughout the whole flight, I pressed my forehead against my hand to massage my aching temples, to cover my bloodshot eyes and to hide my tears from the guys. I cursed every moment I could get under my breath without waking them up. I envied them for being able to sleep so peacefully while every single minute was a torture to my five senses. If this torture continued, I knew I would be missing school the next day.

When our flight landed in Domino City, the guys woke up feeling fresh from their nap. We made our way through the terminal to pick up our luggage, go through immigration and find ourselves a cab. However, Yugi's grandfather was able to rent a car to pick him up. Joey and Tristan lived in the opposite direction from me and decided to share a cab. I was left to find my way home alone because I refused Yugi's offer to drop me home. I wanted some time by myself to figure out how I was going to cope with my depression for the rest of the week. As stupid as my feelings were for the pharaoh, the ache I felt in my chest was not a feeling I could ignore.

While lugging my suitcase around the airport, I spotted a café to temporarily relax my aching muscles and my heart. I was tired, hungry, depressed and grouchy from a long flight and in three hours I had my first class to attend. I lined up with other people and ordered a vanilla mocha latte in hopes that it would refuel my five senses. After sitting down and drinking my latte while I observed people with a look of boredom on my face, I finally decided to make my way to the taxi area. I was amazed how everyone was able to walk so swiftly around me. Sometimes I would hear their laughter and watched how they brightly interacted with each other. I wondered if I would be able to do the same thing soon.

I was so immerse in my thoughts about the carefree acts of other people that I missed a taxi driver taking the luggage from my hand and placing it in the trunk.

"Miss, where do you need to go?" asked the cab driver. I just stared at him dumbly while he waved his hand at my face. "Miss, I drive a cab. Don't you have a place to go to?"

"Oh, yes," I replied stupidly, suddenly realizing he was talking to me. I guessed from my rumpled clothes and bloodshot eyes; he decided to give me time to gather my thoughts before giving him my home address.

He drove in silence. He cracked his window and one of the passenger's windows to allow some fresh breeze to flow in the car. His fingers tapped lightly on the steering wheel as his eyes focused on the freeway signs in search of a sign that said Domino City. I was grateful for his silence and the slight breeze flowing through the car. The cool wind hit my face causing me to close my eyes and relish the little rest I could take before arriving home. I knew once I was home, I would have a different and complicated situation to handle with my father all together.

Nonetheless, everything good had an end. The cab driver broke the silence with a cough making me open my eyes to stare at the back of his dark head. His dark brown eyes briefly glanced at the rear view mirror before glancing back on the road. "I take it your flight was a rough one?"

At first, I didn't want to answer his question, because I was unsure if I had enough energy to make small conversation with him. But my father raised me to never be impolite to a person who was being nice to me. "Yes."

"And your getaway wasn't a vacation?" he asked.

"Yes," I whispered to him. I averted my gaze to the window next to me and I found myself staring at a white 328i BMW traveling at the same speed of the cab.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said almost too quietly for my ears to hear him.

It was hard to respond to someone who was expressing his condolences for my loss, especially since he was a stranger. However, a tear escaped my eye was all the gesture he needed to confirm his assumption, as he glanced at me through his rear view mirror.

After a moment of silence I said, "I guess I make my situation very obvious."

"You look as though you had a bad experience and you weren't able to express yourself in the appropriate manner." Either this cab driver was an astute observer or he liked to mind people's business.

As if he read my expression, he quickly apologized for his indiscreet behavior. "I drive this cab six times a week for eleven hours a day. I meet a great number of people traveling from place to place and throughout their company in this car, I learned the ability to discern their moods. You looked very sad and needed someone to comfort you."

"Do I look alone to you?" I questioned him all of a sudden. I didn't want someone to comfort me. I wanted to cry either in a private or a public space without anyone interrupting me. I had the right to exercise my freedom of feeling emotions without anyone telling me otherwise. "You know what? Don't answer that."

"My apologies miss." I assumed he accessed his situation that if he further questioned me, he won't receive any tips. So we traveled in silence until my curiosity got the better of me.

"Is it my dishevel appearance that makes you wonder if I lost someone quite recently?" I wiped another tear falling from my eye with the back of my hand.

"No, it's the look in your eyes that speaks volumes," he answered as he flashed a look at me through his mirror before staring at the road. He pushed down the lever by his steering wheel to indicate he was switching lanes to exit from the freeway.

"What kind of look?"

"Your beautiful blue irises do not shine like other people. It seems you lost something or someone of great importance in your life. And because the haunted expression in your eyes reminds me of my sister."

"Your sister?"

He solemnly nodded his head. I heard a crack in his voice before he answered me. "Two years ago, my sister lost her fiancé in a car accident. She carried the same expression in her eyes as you do."

"You're right about my pain in losing someone dear Mister…."

"Raoul," the man replied. "My name is Raoul."

"Mine is Tea," I confessed. Somehow this man had a warm and trusting vibe that radiated from him. He seemed genuinely concerned about my well being even though he didn't know me.

"It's nice to meet you Tea," he said lightly as his lips twisted into a small smile.

I couldn't help but smile at his remark. "It's nice to meet you too Raoul."

"And I feel a little better seeing a smile on your face. You should smile more, you have a beautiful one to share with the world."

I stopped smiling as I inhaled a deep breath and looked outside the window to stare at the vivid houses. The streets seemed familiar to me notifying me I was almost home. "Raoul, did your sister get over her fiance's death?"

It took a moment for him to answer. His face lightened at my question as he thought of his sister. "Yes," he said. "Eventually time heals all wounds."

"Really?" I challenged him, wondering if I eventually get over my pain of losing Atem.

"Well, in her situation, she realized as long she kept the memories of her fiancé in her heart, he will continue to be a part of her," he said carefully.

"But only living with memories? Is that enough?"

"With enough time to grieve and learning how to cope with the pain, she was able to move on with her life. What really matters is never losing the precious memories of your loved ones. Once you keep them in your heart, they will live with you until the very end. And there is also the fact your loved ones will want you to be happy while you're alive."

"But what if you really loved a person but because of complicated circumstances you never confessed your feelings to that person?"

He responded after a little hesitation, "I don't know what to say to that."

"I'm looking for an answer to that question. That's why I'm sad."

The cab driver pulled up to a curb, indicating to me that I finally reached my destination. Raoul told me the price of the cab fair and when I paid him, he gave me his business card. "I don't mean to be rude, but if you ever want to talk, you can give me a call."

I slightly smiled at his concern. "Although it's none of my business as to what I think about your position, if you told that person how you felt, I'm sure that person would have returned your feelings."

I was taken aback by his sudden remark. "Why are you so sure?"

"Because of your good heart," he simply answered.

I didn't know how to respond to him but he smiled cheekily at me when I closed the cab door. He stepped out of the cab, opened the trunk to pull out my luggage. He closed the trunk and entered the cab. I waved at him as he drove away until his car disappeared from my line of vision. Raoul was a sort of a weird person but his conversation did enlighten me about my situation. Maybe with time, I could learn to live with the heartache and loss of Atem. After all, I still have to complete his unfinished business.

However, I didn't have much time to think about my strange encounter with Raoul because the door to my house opened to reveal my dad. He awkwardly ran to me to give me a quick hug. I returned his hug knowing he missed having me around since it was just him and me. My mother passed away when I was very young, leaving my father and I to fend for ourselves. And it was very difficult for us financial wise. My father was a self-employed man who worked at any time and I worked odd jobs after school to make money so we could make ends meet. Nonetheless, the hard work we put into making money to pay the house mortgage, bills and put food on the table made us a close-knit family. My dad was the only person who knew my mood swings, my school life and my employed life. As for the supernatural story of Yugi having a five thousand year old pharaoh stuck in his body was a different scenario all together.

My father grabbed my luggage from beside me and walked through the open door. He waited until I was inside the enclosed area of the front porch and the door was closed and locked to bombard me with questions.

"So how was your trip to Egypt with the guys? Did you have a good time? You know I wouldn't normally allow you to travel with a group of guys by yourself, but I do trust that Yugi won't allow the other two knuckleheads to hurt you. Did you bring any artifacts back from Egypt to add to my collection or did you bring a book I can read?"

I heaved a breath as I passed my hand through my short and tangled hair. I was so tired and I didn't think I had enough energy to withstand his energetic nature. Sometimes, I swore my father had a child captured in his adult body. Maybe he had a similar situation to Yugi, except the child stayed and the adult left to go to the afterlife. I smiled a little at my own joke before shaking my head.

Only my dad's sudden appearance in front of my face surprised me. My whole body jerked and I had to put a hand over my heart as a silent gesture to will my heartbeat to slow down. I wasn't running a marathon, but I felt like I ran ten miles.

"Are you okay?" my dad asked me in concern. He placed a large hand over my forehead and wheezed a breath. He removed his hand from my forehead to gently touch my cheeks. "You feel very warm, too warm, in fact. I think you may have a fever."

He motioned me to the couch in the living room, however, he rushed to it to shove a whole bunch of books on the floor. I shook my head as I clearly remembered shoving the same books in a clear plastic bag and throwing them in the trash. "Dad, did you get those books from out in the back or did you buy new books when I was in Egypt?" I questioned him with a severe tone.

"Uh… I can explain…." He waved his hands comically in the air. If I didn't feel like crap, I would have laughed at his defensive reaction. "I was doing so well for the past couple of days. I got called into the pawnshop to look over some buttons that were claimed to have some ties to George Washington, you know the first American president, and I was able to identify them as the original ones he wore on the day of his inauguration on April 30, 1789. That's a big deal! I made some good money, but I saw these interesting books to help me with a new idea to invent something and one thing led to another."

It was my turn to raise my hand to stop him from talking. I raised my other hand to my forehead to rub an oncoming ache. Slowly I inhaled and exhaled a breath. "Buttons claimed to be from George Washington from 1789 here in Domino City… and you spending money on more novels when the last idea you had about the snap-and-go-lighter bookmark was patented by someone else."

"I know, I'm sorry." My father hunched his shoulders in shame. "The buttons were real, of course. I have done enough research in United States history to recognize them."

"I'm not doubting your expertise, father. I know you're a scholar, but you are very bad with managing money," I said to him truthfully. When mother was alive, dad was a happy and responsible man. After her death, he grieved and threw himself into studying artifacts, reading scholarly books, attending classes and spending the money we had left from mom's life insurance on useless things. Our financial situation got so unfortunate that I stopped inviting Yugi, Joey and Tristan over to hang out. I didn't want them to know about my regrettable financial matter. I worked odd jobs and lied to them about saying I was saving up the money to attend New York City to become a dancer. Well, I did want to become a dancer until Atem decided to leave me. Currently, dancing was the last thing on my mind.

I walked passed him to inspect the hallway leading to the stairs. The wooden floors looked well polished from the last time I left the house. I made my way into the kitchen and noticed dishes were piled up in the sink, the table had bread crumbs, the floor looked like it haven't been swept for days. I stepped toward the refrigerator and opened the door to see stale fruits, opened boxes of take-out food on the shelves. We had no milk and no eggs.

"Dad!" I yelled. "I leave the house for a week and this is how you leave things!" I reentered the living room to notice our plush couch seat was gone along with a bookshelf. The living room remained with a cream color three-seated couch, a small coffee table, a bookshelf with numerous books and a small television. "Did you have to sell the one seated couch and the bookshelf while I was away?"

He looked down at his hands in shame. "We had to pay mortgage for this month and I ran short of money."

Although I felt so drained of energy, my father's distress called to me. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him to comfort him. Although he was unreliable, he was still my father. "It's okay." My voice reflected with sincerity. "We are going through hard times now but one day you will find the multimillionaire idea to strike a successful business and we'll have too much money to know how to handle it."

My dad looked at me with tenderness shining in his teary eyes and he awkwardly returned my hug. "Yes, every business man must take chances before he strikes gold."

But as quickly as he hugged me, he let me go and pushed me to lie down on the couch. "So how was your trip to Egypt? Gosh, you look like crap!"

"That's how I feel," I muttered as I settled my head on one the cushions on the couch.

"What happened for you to return looking like this?" I heard him shuffled around the room until I felt something cool pressed against my forehead. Again, I heard him throw objects aside before he appeared with a blanket to cover and keep me warm.

"Papa," I called to him as he knelt beside me. I haven't called my dad "papa" for a long time. I only used that endearment when I was a child and I was seeking his help when I was in trouble. "Have you kept a secret so big that you felt like it was going to explode-."

"And as much as you want to tell it to someone else, you can't because it's not your secret to tell?" my father finished my sentence.

I nodded my head as new tears began to fall from my eyes. _Gosh, how many tears am I going to shed in one day?_ I mentally asked. Once the tears started, I couldn't stop them or the sobs that caused havoc on my breathing. "I… lost… something… important," I said through my sobs. "I… I… lost… him."

All my dad could do was pat my head while he let me cry. Sometimes when my sobs weren't loud, I heard him grumble something about killing some incompetent boys for making his daughter cry and how he would unleash hell into the world for seeing me so distraught.

After sometime my sobs died down. There were no more tears to leak from my eyes. My body felt like led. Even shifting my head to stare at my dad seemed like an impossible task. I didn't want to sleep. I had a nagging feeling that sleep was a bad idea for my troubled senses. However, I was only a human and every human needed to rest.

As my eyes started to droop, I heard my father shuffled through his books in search of something. I could see the blackness behind my eyelids when I heard my father's gruffly voice speaking to someone else. "I need you to come right away. I think, you know what, has begun."

Then, I fell into a deep slumber.


	3. Chapter Two

**AN:** Thank you kindly to the readers who reviewed me. I really appreciate your comments. Also, thank you to the readers who added me to their favorite list and their follow list. Originally, this chapter was a long chapter consisting of 10,000 words but I decided to cut it in half because it was too long. Please read and leave a review.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yugioh or the game: _Yugioh! The Duelist of the Roses_. This fanfiction is purposely written for the fun of it.

**Chapter Two**

I was standing in a scorched desert under a clear blue sky. My toes curled into the sand as if to relish the rough grains under my feet. I inhaled a deep breath into my lungs to savor the humidity in the air before letting it go. There were hills of sands that the wind gently swept across the valley. In a distance, a golden triangular shape glimmered causing me to strain my eyes to get a better look at it. With a couple steps toward the shimmering object, I felt a large hand gently squeezed my shoulder as to halt my progress to the golden object. I turned my head to see the owner of the hand and my breath caught in my throat. There was a tall, handsome, brunette hair man standing beside me. His hair impossibly defied gravity. He wore a royal blue thick kimono with a green cloth from his waist down to his feet. The cloth contained circular symbols with a line in the center in each of them. I glanced back at his hand, noticing the long and lean fingers. I could feel the sudden heat of them through the thin layer of my white dress.

Another form appeared next to me. I slightly shifted my head to see a beautiful petite woman wearing a long navy blue shirt over red pants. Her short dark hair was tied in a high ponytail. A simple rope was tied at her waist to emphasize her feminine curves despite being dressed in baggy clothing. She held a simple staff in her right hand.

"You must not approach the golden pyramid. The eye of it must never see you," said the strange woman who seemed familiar to me.

I wanted to ask "why" but my mouth remained shut. The man finally removed his hand from my shoulder as he lifted his good-looking face into the sky.

"Do you sense something, Vermillion?" the woman asked as she stepped in front of me. By her concerned expression for the tall man, I wondered if she deeply cared for him besides considering him an ally.

"I do," he answered. I looked around me, turning my body away from the couple to stare at something behind me. I saw another bright and triangular object in the distance that reflected the color of the sky. However, I could see the golden shape of an eye. The dark iris briefly shined at the three of us before it dimmed. Beneath the eye had two lines, one line curved as a snake and the other appeared to be diagonal. My two companions didn't notice the brief shine from the other pyramid.

"Vermillion? Faith?" I called their names to get their attention, however, I didn't know how I knew their names. They popped into my mind like it was the most natural words for me to say. The both of them stopped their private conversation to glance at my direction. Faith gasped while Vermillion growled low in his throat. "Vermillion? Faith?"

"Oh no!" Faith said. She slapped her forehead with her hand. "This is not good!"

"It's about to get worse," Vermillion said. As to confirm his suspicion, a darkness started to spread into the sky, causing the light to turn black.

_What the hell is happening?_ I wanted to mentally ask my two companions, but with the silent communication with just a glance between the both of them, I didn't have enough time to question them. Faith stepped closer to me, her thin arms wrapped around my waist. I didn't notice my outfit until I looked down at her arms, wondering why she was hugging me from behind. I wore a beautiful white dress that hugged my upper body and exposed my waist area. From waist down, the dress curved around my hips and flared down to my bare feet to give me room to walk around freely. The hem of the dress was embodied with pure gold. My hips was adorned a thin golden belt. I wore golden bangles on my wrists.

Faith's chant broke me from observing my attire. All of a sudden, we were floating above the sand.

"You can't be here anymore," her voice filtered through the silence. "They can't know your existence."

"Who, what?" I asked, finally relieved that I can question them.

"The mortals have discovered our world," Vermillion said. He walked away from us and outstretched his arms at his sides. Wisps of fire suddenly burned from his hands. Only then was I able to connect the dots as to why his hands felt so heated against my skin. The man created fire from nothing.

_Is that possible? _I wanted to yell at him._ But then again, is it possible for me to be floating in the air?_

"It's not safe for us to stay here," Faith said softly for only my ears to hear. "The eye from one of the pyramids must have sensed your presence in this world. We must transfer you into a safe place."

"Where?" I asked with sadness filling my voice. "I don't want to abandon you or the others."

"You can't stay here," replied Vermillion. "Faith, veil her existence in the mortal realm."

I felt Faith's nod of approval while she lifted me higher into the air.

"No! Vermillion!" I screamed as I stretched my hand to get to him. I didn't want to desert him while Faith took me to safety. The wisps of fire burned into bright flames in his hands. With an impressive display of his powers, he turned into a full circle, alighting the sands with his fire. Quickly, it spread around him, roaring through the hills of sands until the flames reached the two pyramids. "Vermillion!"

"He will be okay," Faith said with an impassioned tone. "His gift will not burn him."

From where Faith and I hovered, the flames from the sands were like the brightness of stars illuminating the dark sky.

"Tea?" called another voice from the dark sky. It echoed around me, canceling the noise from the flames. The glow from the fire turned hazy until it vanished. The feel of Faith's arms wrapped around me disappeared. Turning my head from side to side, I saw nothing. I clasped my hands over my stomach, removed them to lift them to my face. Although I couldn't see my hands, I felt their warmth against my cheeks. Everything around me was shrouded in darkness.

"Damn! She's burning up! Are you sure this works?" The voice muttered. I felt the warm and wet touch of something pressing against my forehead. I moved one of my hands from my cheek to touch my head and I didn't feel the object.

"Yes," replied another masculine voice. "Keeping her cool will help reduce the temperature of her fever."

"It's not working!" exclaimed the other voice. His voice sounded so much like my father. "Damn it! What were those scumbags thinking bringing back my daughter with an illness? I ought take my nunchucks and beat the shit out of them!" My over protective father sounded like he was pissed off at my friends.

"It will work. And beating them up will solve nothing," said the other voice who I couldn't place with a name or face. However, his voice sounded familiar as if I encountered having a conversation with him quite recently.

"It will soothe my ego instead of sitting here and being a helpless dad."

"Then read this," the man said. I heard something drop beside me. I raised my hands in the darkness to search for the item and I felt nothing.

"What is this?"

"A journal of sorts that will help you understand everything your daughter and her friends endured until now."

I heard the sounds of pages being flipped from a book before my dad answered, "I can't read this. This is an obstruction of privacy."

There was a moment of silence before the other person replied, "As I see it, you have two choices. One, you can respect your daughter's privacy and remain in the dark. Or two, you can read her journal and update yourself on her situation to prepare yourself for the worst of it."

"What the hell are you saying?" My father's voice got darker with rage. Wherever I was, I could sense his anger and confusion. And as the only person who could calm him down, I struggled in the darkness to get to him.

I felt my hand released a fistful of cloth.

"I'm saying your daughter did not leave Egypt in one piece-." But the man never finished his sentence. I heard a smack and a collapse of books.

"If something severe happened to my daughter, I swear by the Egyptian Sun God of Ra, that hell will be unleashed to those who hurt her!" my dad yelled on the tops of his lungs. My body shifted and I felt the softness of the couch cushions under me. I had to wake up before my dad did something irrational to the other person.

"Silence," the man commanded.

"Papa?" I said. I surprised myself by finding my voice. I heard quick footsteps approached me and then gentle hands were running through my hair. I tried to open my eyes and leave the darkness I was drifting in but my eyelids felt heavy. I tried to shift my body into a more comfortable position but my limbs felt like led.

"When your daughter and her friends left Egypt, they, no, she awakened something magical and powerful," the man admonished. "It's so powerful that it followed her back here."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Read her journal and discover the journey she and her friends struggled through. Only then will I further explain everything because as of right now, nothing I say will make any sense."

"Fine," my father gave in. "But you better give one damn good explanation because if Tea is in trouble, I will do everything in my will power to protect her. I can't afford to lose her like I did with my wife."

Then there was silence. I was drifting again in a black void with no light. I didn't bother to struggle for a way out or to cry out for help. Something in my mind told me that the darkness would fade and I would wake up to find my father seated next to me. Until then, I had to wait.

But as I floated in darkness, I heard another voice call to me. It was a voice I thought I would never hear again. It was a voice filled with love and warmth but I could sense the sadness in it. A light so bright flashed over me and I found myself staring at a little girl with short brunette hair, wearing a pink flower dress with a matching ribbon in her hair. She was sitting on a chair before a large table. She held cards in her hands while her bright blue eyes examined every one. Across from her sat a woman who looked identical to my mother. She wore a white cloth over her head to cover her hair. Her skin was sickly pale and her body looked too small in her white t-shirt and blue jeans. Large blue eyes framed with dark bags examined her cards. There was a checkered looking board on the table with flashing holograms of monsters.

I blinked my eyes before rubbing them with my hands. The only holograms of duel monsters I recalled were what Kaiba's cooperation produced and I didn't remember him making them on a board game.

"Mommy, I don't know what to do," said the little girl who resembled me at a younger age.

"Are you sure, honey?" the woman who looked like a startling exact replica of my mom asked the little girl.

"I just can't do it," the little girl continued. "I can't hurt them. It makes me sad to summon my monsters to protect me and then they die."

"It's a game, honey," mom said. "They don't really exist."

"But they are alive. It's not fair for me to summon them to protect me and then they die. I rather get hurt than to watch them suffer." The little girl dropped her cards, leaving them to scatter either on her lap or on the floor. She began to cry in earnest.

"And do you know what makes them more sad?" the mother asked as she put down her cards, got up from her seat and made her way towards her distressed daughter.

The small girl shook her head while burying her face in her small hands.

The mother knelt down beside the child and lightly hugged her. Her hands smoothed out the child's hair before saying, "They are more sad to see you hurt when they can't save you."

The child cried harder and the mother gently rested her cheek on the crown of the girl's head. "Think of every duel like a war. Every time your monsters, no, your guardians fight a battle against each other, one dies. But the guardian is happy knowing he or she defended you. However, after the battle, your guardians in the graveyard are revived and they return to your side unharmed. But you on the other hand will be affected. If you lose, your guardians will feel like they failed you. If you win, your guardians have done their duty and you will grow to become a better duelist."

The child hiccuped in her mother's arms. She rubbed her eyes and tilted her head so her mother would give her space to move. "But if I lose, don't I become a better duelist?"

"You will become a better duelist if you try playing the game instead of giving up," the woman scolded the child lightly.

"But I can't win against you, you're the best!" the child burst out passionately while wiping away the remaining of her tears.

"You can win. Do you want me to teach how?"

The girl nodded her head.

The mother moved behind her daughter and covered her eyes. "First you close your eyes and take a deep breath. When you open them, access your cards and then the other duelist's cards." She removed her hands from the child's face, leaving the child to examine the board game. "The other duelist is allowed to have only five cards either trap or magic cards on the field and the same goes for the amount of monsters on the field. In total, that's ten cards. There is a higher chance that a card placed face down in defensive position is magic or trap card. Cards in front on the deck leader or are coming to your side of the field, is most likely their guardian. Then, you look down at your cards and figure which card is the best one to face down in attack or defensive position. But remember to watch your foe's cards that are coming to attack you. Judging by the distance in the form of boxes, you can strategize a way to defeat their guardian. However, you're only allowed to put one card on the field for every turn."

The girl gulped and nodded her head. Looking down at her lap and the floor at her discarded cards, she felt ashamed for throwing her guardians aside. A tear escaped her eye as she bent down and retrieved them. She hugged them close to her heart and whispered an apology to them. After, she put her cards on the table and embraced her mother in a hug. "I don't know if I can remember everything you told me, mommy. But, thanks.

Her mother returned her hug. "And thank you for always letting me win," the woman whispered before suddenly letting go of the child to collapse on the floor. The child watched in horror as her mother's body began to violently shake, the woman was desperately trying to grasp onto one of the table legs for some kind of support. Her breaths were shallow. The table moved with every kick and toss the mother made causing the monster cards to scatter all over floor. The game board was knocked down from the table and parts were dismembered from it.

"Daddy!" the child yelled. "Daddy!" She ran to the stairs calling for her father. He dashed down the stairs with a phone in his hand. I was shocked to see a younger version of my father rushing into the kitchen. "Mommy's sick again!"

"I know honey!" he exclaimed. He dropped the phone to the side while reaching for his wife. He used his body to pin her sickly form onto the ground to prevent her from hurting herself any further. Eventually, the mother stopped fighting until her body went still. She stopped breathing all together. The girl watched as her father cradled her mother all while he shed tears. All the girl heard, besides her father's sobs, was the operator's "hello" echoing on the phone.

And I woke up, crashing into an upright position while haggardly inhaling and exhaling breaths. Sweat dripped from my face down to my chest. My limbs were tangled in the blanket, restricting me from getting off the couch. Automatically, I felt arms wrapped around me and I stiffened to only relax when I realized my father was the person to hug me.

As I waited for my pulse to slow down, I closed my eyes and forced my breaths to become even. I heard my dad grumble something about taking years from his life and to not make him worry about me again. Then he mentioned something about having a serious chat with me later because I was in extreme trouble for hiding stuff from him. But his words didn't register in my mind like the last scene of the little girl and her mother before I woke up. It was a memory I swore to forget because I was the little girl when I witnessed my mother's death. It was a scene that haunted me so much I pushed aside duel monsters or any other game. I created a bubble or my own little world and remained in it for a couple of years. I talked to no one but my dad. As it was, we had a plate full trying to manage money to pay for the bills and the house mortgage. Slowly, I began to break out of my shell, especially when I became a closer friend with Yugi. Somehow, seeing him when others overlooked him reminded me of myself. In a way, his friendship saved me. I had someone else to protect, especially from the school bullies. I felt like someone else made me feel useful. However, I could not stop the lies that came out of my mouth when he asked me about my personal life. Especially when he, Joey and Tristan came to visit my home. In advance, I would rearrange objects at home and try to arrange for them to come over when my dad was in class or was doing a job. Basically, I separated my personal life from my school life. It was even a worse situation when Yugi and Joey appeared at the burger joint, where I worked part-time to make money. Again, I established a lie of saving money due to my dream of dancing when, in fact, I was saving money to purchase food or pay some random house bill.

And then Atem came along. His existence completely changed my life. He saved me from a robber who probably would have raped me if he didn't appear on time. And how he handled that situation by winning a game was quite amazing. On the hold, the pharaoh had a way he could look right through me. The moment his amethyst eyes stared into my blue ones, I felt like I was drowning in the depths of his world. Anything I told him could be used against me. My eyes were the windows to my soul. It didn't help he was the king of games. He could detect deceit from anyone and was quite ruthless in punishing those who he deemed was a threat. I was grateful to be considered his ally than an adversary. Only, I wished there was something more between us.

Then, there were other times that feeling of "being something more" shimmered in the air between us. I felt like I was the only person who was able to connect with him, which came to me as a shocker because Yugi and him shared a body. Wouldn't one person know what the other was thinking in the same body? I was also amazed at my perception to discern Yugi from the pharaoh's appearance when Joey and Tristan saw them as one person. Which left me to ponder on certain questions pertaining to him. Was Atem able to share his experiences with me because he somehow sensed, that I like him, hid secrets from our friends? Or could it be a fact that he saw past my cheery nature, and to make me feel comfortable, he expressed his feelings of his struggles to me? Or did he see a different side of me that Yugi and the others didn't see, a side that observed scenarios objectively rather than subjectively?

Whatever the answers were to the questions, they would remain unknown because the pharaoh was gone. I didn't have the guts to tell him how I felt. I was too busy trying to support him because he had enough problems dealing with his enemies. I didn't want to add another problem to his list of troubles.

"What happened?" I asked my father, wincing at the soreness I felt in my arms and legs. I shouldn't have gotten up so fast when I woke up from my terrible dream. "How long was I out?"

My father brushed aside my hair from my sweaty face. His other arm reached out beside him to grab a glass of water on the coffee table before giving it to me to drink. "You were out for a whole day and a half."

I was in the midst of drinking water, not realizing how parched my throat was, when his words caused me to spit the water from my mouth back into the glass. I coughed to clear my throat while he patted my back. Gently, he took the glass from my hand before I could accidentally drop it on the floor. "What?" I asked him when I found my voice.

"You returned from your trip with an illness. You had a severe fever with a temperature of 104 degrees. And you know we can't afford to go to the hospital because of financial reasons so I remained home to take care of you," he answered.

If I had a bad fever and I slept for a day and a half, then I missed a whole day of school. I slapped my head with one of my hands, groaning at both my stupidity and the sudden stinging sensation in my head.

"You should lay back down on the couch and get some rest. I will prepare some more chicken noodle soup for you to eat when you're hungry," my dad advised me. He stood up from his kneeling position to make his way into the kitchen when my eyes spotted a familiar golden book with glitters of a triangle representing the millennium item that Yugi and the pharaoh wore over their neck. Automatically, I recalled hearing a stranger's voice conversing with my father when I was sleeping.

"Dad," I called, wincing because my voice sounded small. "Was there someone else here?"

He stopped in tracks, as he was about to enter the kitchen. His back faced me. His hands clenched into fists at his sides while I heard the tightness in voice as he responded to my question, "I had to call someone who is an expert with handling sick people."

"Who was it?" I asked, although I had a gut wrenching feeling that I didn't want to know who was the person.

"An old friend and colleague of mine when I use to take small jobs at the Domino Museum." He didn't go into details to name his friend or place an event that I met the stranger.

"Where did you get my journal?" I paused for a moment before I continued. "It was in my luggage and now it's on the coffee table. Shouldn't it be upstairs in my room?"

"It was given to me by my friend who knows more about you and your friends' trip to Egypt."

I was playing with fire and I was about to get burned. "Dad, that journal… it's mine for private reasons. You have no right to read the contents in it."

He turned around to face me and I gasped at the redness in his cheeks and the anger I saw raging in his dark eyes. "You have no right to hide any of those adventures from me! What the hell would have happened if you were injured or worse, dead? All those times you made me worry, all those times you lied to me! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

I covered my face with my hands because I hated to see when my dad got upset with me. I tried so hard to be responsible, to make a meager living while helping Yugi and the others to save the world. The emotions I tossed aside while trying to appear to be strong for my friends was beginning to cause havoc on my senses. But how long could I continue to lie to my dad when he noticed the days off I took from work and the more time I spent with them because we were trying to unravel the pharaoh's memories?

"Please, dad, try to understand from my perspective why I had to hide this information from you," I said. My hands muffled my voice but I knew he heard my every word.

"What is there to understand?" he countered. "You lied, you constantly put yourself in reckless danger on top of the other problems we have. Have you ever thought about how I will feel if I knew the truth?"

"All the time," I instantly replied. I moved my hands to my side while I stared into dad's eyes with resolution. "When mom died, I had to struggle everyday to become physically and mentally strong because you were overwhelmed by her sudden death in our family."

"Don't use that as an excuse-." But I interrupted him by putting one hand up in the air.

"Please, let me finish, dad," I said. Although, it hurt me to speak the truth, I had to find the courage to explain my side of the story. "I had to become strong in my own way. It took me a couple of years, but I found my answer in one boy. Yugi Muto. Watching him, a frail looking boy, stand up for other people inspired me to fight in my own way. I couldn't fight in duel monsters like him or Joey, but I could encourage him to do his best with my words. Despite that, I still wanted to become a stronger person because I realized that Yugi was also protecting me and fighting battles on my behalf. Eventually, I realized my own strength. I may not be as strong as him, Joey or Tristan but I was fighting alongside them to save the world and protect the people I hold dear to my heart. Dad, I was fighting to protect you because I couldn't protect mom as a child."

The room became silent after my speech. My father shook his head and sighed before he walked to the coffee table to get my book. He lifted it and opened the pages before shaking his head again. "You really don't give yourself enough credit."

I inhaled a deep breath, shocked at hearing the same words coming from him that Ishizu said. Slowly, I heaved out air from my lungs as I looked down at my hands.

"You were ten years old, practically a child, when your mother died. There was nothing more we could do for her." He paused before he continued, but I heard the crack in his voice. "Additionally, the contents in this book are amazing. You reenacted Yugi's or the pharaoh's duels with great details. Only someone with a keen eye can record accurate information based on memory. Also, according to your friend's journey, you played a significant role. As I see it, you were the heart of the group, their voice of reason. However, there are parts of your adventure that are unfathomable to imagine such as the pyramid of light or meeting with Alexander the Great."

My father smiled genuinely before handing the journal to me. I smiled in return, feeling a little grateful that the tension died in the atmosphere. "Anyway, would you believe me if I told you Yugi had a five thousand year old spirit stuck in his body?"

"Heck no!" my dad quickly responded. "But then again, we have a family full of psychotic people." He bent down to his knees. His head touched the floor as he stretched his hand under the coffee table to retrieve a dusty and worn box. I frowned not recalling seeing a box under the table when I cleaned the wooden floors. He sat upright with the box cradled in his arms and he carefully put it on the table. He opened the lid to reveal many old items, which looked like junk. However, what he pulled from the box caught my attention. It was an old journal with yellowing pages that was worn with age. Dad opened the book to expose faded ink and sketches of familiar monsters. "Whether you find it believable or not, your great uncle had an adventure where he claimed he was transported through time to assist with battling a war in 1485."

My eyes almost bugged out from my sockets. "Also, he too recorded his information with perfect detail similarly to your journal." He carefully handed the journal to me. I took it with shaky hands and positioned it on my lap. The moment I opened the book to a creased page, my hand fell over an object shaped as white rose with a blue ribbon. "You're not off the hook from our serious discussion, but from what I read in your journal, this journal may be of help to you."

Before I could further question my father, he left me alone with both journals in the living room.


End file.
